Bus Wire

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

What gauge do you recomend for a bus wire?

Thanks,
PJ

2

SCALE: HO LOAD:3 Amp UP TO 8’- (22) 8 - 12’-(20) 12 - 20’-(18)
OVER 20’- (16)

K-

3

PJ,

It depends how big your layout is? For a standard 4 x 8 layout, figure 16 ga. - with 20-22 ga. for your feeder wires. The feeder wires should, at a minimum, be every 3 feet of track and no longer than 3 feet in length.

PJ, you can always go bigger for your buss wire, if you want. It won’t harm your DCC signal. However, making your buss smaller than 16 ga. may cause you some problems.

Tom

4

I have a around the room shelf layout which comes to about 100 ft…For my layout it was recommeded that I use 12 guage wire,but I use 14 guage because it’s so much easier to work with.I’ve been running my Digitrax Chief DCC for over 10 years with no problems.I have 8 ,sound equipt locos and about 20 lighted passenger cars and seem to still have plenty of power(although I am waiting for a booster to enable me to use op mode programing for my BLI andTsunami

5

I’m going with 12 ga…

Theres some good tips on http://www.wiringfordcc.com/ if you’re interested.